Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
They managed to get Seamus a pain pill, and Dawson had tucked his lover into bed before it had kicked in, which was good because the pretty son of a bitch had crashed and burned, and was now snoring to beat the band.
Dawson, on the other hand, was wide awake and in desperate need of a beer, so he tiptoed out of the bedroom and headed down to the big kitchen.
He found Topher sitting there staring out of the large plate-glass window, facing toward the pool. “Hey, man.”
“Hey. I was just having a beer. You want one?”
“God, yes. Stay sitting. I’ll grab it. I know where it is.” Dawson snagged one from the fridge that was just for beer, going to sit after he popped the top.
He faced out the same way as Topher, admiring the stars and the lights in the pool.
“How you doing?”
Dawes shrugged at Christopher’s question.
“I don’t know. I’ve never actually seen someone try to throw something like that at anyone.
A person, I mean. Don’t get me wrong, we get a few folks at the events, but believe it or not, not too many.
The protestors mainly focus on the smaller rodeos with horses.
Bulls aren’t quite so cute, I guess. What about you? ”
Topher shrugged. “It doesn’t happen with Seamus hardly at all, ever, but his mom has a reputation for being political, and she’s way more famous than he is. You did a great job though. Jumped right in there.”
“What else was I supposed to do?” Seamus was his guy, and that was just… even if it hadn’t been Seamus’s momma, she was still a little lady, and he was not gonna let some scary asshole with a bucket of pig blood go and terrify her.
This was not Carrie.
“Exactly what you did. I mean, that was the best possible answer.” Topher stared right at him, not a hint of guile in his expression. “You didn’t hesitate. You didn’t panic. You dealt with the situation. You did exactly the right thing.”
“Thanks.” He shrugged. “I work in cowboy protection.”
Topher took a deep swig of his beer. “Yeah, I work in Seamus protection. I fucked up today.”
“How? You can’t be at his side twenty-four-seven. Everyone sleeps. Things happen. It got dealt with.” He shook his head, blew out a frustrated breath. “I would have thought the restaurant would have had better security honestly.”
“I think it was early enough in the day that they thought that the one guy was good enough, and then when the assholes tased him, it just put him down. He never even got a chance to call it in.”
“Oh damn.” He hadn’t considered that. “Is he okay?”
Topher winced. “He got some pretty bad burns, and he’s a little shaken up, so basically yeah.”
“So what’s the deal with Seamus’s mom?” She seemed harmless, for fuck’s sake.
“Kat’s never shied away from doing anything political, and believe it or not, that puts her as the target of the left and the right.”
He frowned over at Chris. “Explain that to me.”
“The right hates her because she brings all of this stuff to light. The left hates her because she ends up, you know, shooting in places where it’s environmentally delicate. Hell, we had one group of people that were furious at her because she wasn’t vegan, and they thought she ought to be.”
“You’re not serious.”
“As a heart attack.”
“Jesus,” Dawson rubbed the back of his neck, rolling the beer bottle with his other hand. “That just seems so crazy to me. I mean, I don’t understand folks who can’t seem to get it when someone’s trying to help them. And then on the other side… I just don’t understand those folks at all.”
Dawson knew a lot of people probably expected him to be conservative and kind of a dick, but he wasn’t. He was gay for fuck’s sake, and he believed in pretty much everyone having the same rights as everybody else. He also, being a cowboy, believed in the environment and in conservation.
“Yeah, I don’t either.” Topher lifted one shoulder and then dropped it again, his expression tight. “I know Robin feels the same way I do though, when I say that we didn’t set that up right. We should have been more careful.”
“So, Robin. What’s his deal? He seems a lot younger than Kat.”
“Never has mattered to either one of them. They’re not obvious about it, but I’m pretty sure they’re together. It works for them.”
“Well, I ain’t one to judge. I believe as long as people are adults, they know what their minds want, they know what their bodies want, then they can do it together.”
Topher grinned at him. “Yeah, me too. Oh Lord, I’m not looking forward to Nick showing up.”
“You don’t want to have to explain all this to him?”
“No, what’s worse is I know he’ll have seen it on social media before he ever walks in the door, and he’s going to be freaking out about it.” Topher took another sip of this beer.
“Now, you can tell me it’s none of my business, but it’s complicated with you two, huh?”
Topher smiled, but the twist of his mouth was a little bit bitter.
“It’s not complicated for Nick. He’s open and loving and wonderful, and he feels everything with his whole heart.
I’m the one who needs alone time and who worries about people who get involved with me getting hurt and pushes people away.
” Topher blinked at him. “Jesus, I’ve only had a half a beer. Why am I saying all this shit to you?”
“I just have one of those faces, honey.” He winked at Chris, then sucked a big drag of his beer. “And I’m part of the inner circle now, right? At least that’s what Seamus tells me.”
Christopher chuckled, and that sounded way less harsh than it had only moments ago. “It’s the truth. Welcome to the family, man.”
Christopher held out a hand to shake, and Dawson did it because they’d gone through something tonight. The kind of thing that bonded protective guys like them. He knew it from being on the circuit for so long.
The first time a bullrider made a real good save with somebody else, it helped their friendship, it made them tighter.
Suddenly he had a thousand questions that wouldn’t be held back.
“So, honestly man, you can’t do this by yourself. Do you have other people? Do you bring other people when he’s out of the country? What if he’s got some kind of a press junket or whatever? Is that right? Press junket?”
Topher nodded. “That’s right. Very good.”
He chuckled, shrugged. “Sorry. I just…I need to know.”
“Yeah, we have—obviously we have a team. We use this company called AusTex security.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, it’s complicated—they’re friends of friends of Seamus’s.”
That was how business worked. “Okay, fair enough, but for the most part?”
Topher shrugged, his lips twisting. “It’s me. Seamus doesn’t love lots of strangers around all the time. You know, weirdly, he needs his space.”
“Believe it or not, I know about that.” Topher arched an eyebrow at him, but he wasn’t bullshitting.
He had to work with a bunch of folks. “So we’ve got our barrel man, the entertainer who works with us.
Mr. Dillon picked him, hand-picked him in fact—Michael Beo—he’s super funny, and he’s out there, singing and doing all the things.
Great guy, funny as hell. But when he tells you he wants to be left alone, damn. ”
Dawson had been on the fighting end of that particular situation—him and Mike had been traveling partners for a couple of years, and he could tell some stories about when smart and frustrated met his own grouchiness.
It wasn’t pretty.
“Not fun?”
“Shit. That son of a bitch knows when he wants to be left alone and he’s tired. I imagine the same thing with Seamus.” At some point, it was time to stop being on and time to start being just yourself.
Mike was a great guy, and Dawson did love that energy. It wasn’t that it wasn’t real because it was, but when it ran out?
That was it; it was over.
“We try to keep the outside security down to a low roar for just that reason,” Topher said.
“I still think you need one more guy.”
Topher glanced at him. “I think I kind of have one more guy.”
“What? Who?”
Topher just stared.
“Dude, I’m not security.”
“I wasn’t either, at the beginning, and I know you’ve got a job, and I understand you won’t be here all the time, but I think you might be it, man.”
Dawson sat back, pondering that. He needed to pick that apart later, give it the attention it deserved. But his initial reaction was hell, yes, he was it. He wanted to keep his lover safe. To make sure no one ruined that amazing spirit Seamus had.
“I’m willing,” was what popped out of his mouth.
Topher nodded, as if he was about as satisfied as could be.
“Cool, cool. Let’s work on getting you the appropriate licenses.
I want you to be able to carry if you have to.
That way, when you are around, I’m not worrying about watching you as well.
I can just worry about him. I like him a little bit. ”
Wow.
Also, whoa.
He glanced at Chris, asking the question that no one seemed to want to ask. “So, how did you end up being security? I know you went to high school together.”
Chris’s lips tightened. “I got kidnapped with him. I wasn’t used to the situation, I didn’t realize that it wasn’t funny to slip your security, and I talked him into doing it.
When I got home, after my mom let me talk to him again, I realized I was going to protect him no matter what, just like he protected me when we were kidnapped. ”
There was a story there, but he didn’t think it was his to hear or to ask about. To be honest, wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
One day, it would come up, no doubt, and Seamus would probably tell him, and he would probably sit there with his heart in his toes, his stomach trying to go nauseous. But for now, Dawson was gonna just let that go.
“I hear you, man. I see you, okay?”